Sevan Matossian:
He’s having some sort of internet issues. Bam. We’re live.
Brian Friend:
Is he in Africa with Taylor?
Sevan Matossian:
Hey. Oh, um, uh, is Taylor already in Africa?
Brian Friend:
I’m, I’m pretty sure that’s why he showed us that video of him feeding a rabid animal.
Sevan Matossian:
Oh, that’s crazy. That video he sent. Hey, didn’t he, didn’t you consider if that thing may have scratched him?
Brian Friend:
Um, did you hear, see what JR said, Taylor has no fear of animals. He has an irrational sense of no fear of animals.
Sevan Matossian:
Oh no, I didn’t see that. Is that a direct read from our text message? Is that
Brian Friend:
Breach? I interpretated a little bit.
Sevan Matossian:
That’s a direct breach of, uh, our trust. Uh, but, but I think you’re absolutely capable of making those types of assessments. So give a pass. Hey, um, uh, I, so the, if we were scheduled for last night, I probably only moved it to this morning cuz I was panicking cuz I was driving all day and I didn’t think I would be prepared.
Brian Friend:
I know, I know. You like Josh more than me. It’s okay.
Sevan Matossian:
No, it’s not like that at all. Although the show last night was great with him. I was so tired and somehow we pulled it off. It was
Brian Friend:
Amazing. You know what I did instead? What? I made my own show.
Sevan Matossian:
Oh, you did? Yeah. Did you go live? No. Oh. Tell me about your own show you made.
Brian Friend:
Well, I was, I was so mad at you.
Sevan Matossian:
And go on <laugh>.
Brian Friend:
No, just, uh, uh, it’s, no, it’s something I was planning to do at, at some point anyway. I just wasn’t sure when and about what, so it’s just maybe like a 20 minute thing. Me and Patrick, uh, reflecting on, because it, I don’t know if you know this, I did all the semi-final tests this past three days.
Sevan Matossian:
I did. I saw on your ins. I didn’t know you did all of ’em, but I knew you were dabbling.
Brian Friend:
So I did them in order and I tried to rep, like, I didn’t do the RX versions of them, but I did versions that I thought would elicit a similar stimulus for someone of my abilities. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and I, and then, uh, we just did a little recap of that. A lot of people were asking what was your favorite? What was, uh, overall impressions. And so instead of just answering those people individually, I just decided to make a little video and we’ll, uh, I think we’re gonna put it out later today or tomorrow. I can’t, I’m not sure. Maybe
Sevan Matossian:
On your, on your, uh, YouTube or on Instagram.
Brian Friend:
We’ll, a we’ll advertise it on Instagram, but it’ll be on YouTube. It’s almost 20 minutes long. Um, I I think we have 13 subscribers and one video up. We haven’t really pushed that at all. But, uh,
Sevan Matossian:
13 subscribers. You’re off to a, a, a, a swimming leave. Fantastic start. Is that the word swimming leave?
Brian Friend:
Yeah. I mean, I’m not, I don’t think we’re, like, we’re not necessarily in a rush. You know, I’m not pushing everyone to Patreon or pushing everyone to ins, you know, YouTube or whatever. Just, uh, trying to do our thing and let it build organically.
Sevan Matossian:
You’re chill.
Brian Friend:
Yeah. I have, uh, you know, I have some friends who’ve, you know, started some, some small businesses and, and grown them over time. And I think that there’s some, from what I’ve heard, talked to them about and kind of observed, I think there’s just some, some principles that are good to apply early on. And being in a rush is probably not the, uh, the way to go. Things fall by the wayside.
Sevan Matossian:
As someone was commenting on your hairline, I know he looks like a vampire, right?
Brian Friend:
This is how my hair was when I first met you. I had nice and short, 2018, no beard back on the grind, the tour for the semi-finals this year, five years later, CrossFit’s taking him over again. So I decided to go back five years with the haircut. Plus it’s easier to deal with on the road.
Sevan Matossian:
How’s your, how’s your internet? Uh, John, you good?
John Young:
Yeah. Uh, I’m going off of my phone right now. Can y’all hear me fine? If you
Sevan Matossian:
Were, uh, on Tyler and, um, spin show, would you be, uh, ghetto in it and doing it on your phone?
John Young:
Is
Sevan Matossian:
This disrespectful to the SevOne podcast? What you’re doing here?
John Young:
Well, you haven’t had me on in a while, so
Sevan Matossian:
Baby steps.
John Young:
Yeah,
Brian Friend:
We just, we don’t, we don’t like to overdo it with you. We like it to be a big supr special occasion.
Sevan Matossian:
We don’t wanna introduce, use your games aspirations.
John Young:
Thank you. I appreciate that. It’s still a ways away, but, uh, I don’t know why my computer’s messing up. Uh, worked for like five seconds.
Sevan Matossian:
Here is the, um, landscape of all of, uh, Brian friend’s stuff. So if you’re not, um, oh, darn it. It’s a two-step process now to get this. Okay. Uh, so there is a YouTube page. Let me see if I can make this a little smaller. Uh, there’s a YouTube FRA page up, uh, subscribe. Okay. It’s a be friendly, uh, fitness looks like it’s about as organized and set up as the sev on podcast. The pictures don’t fit yet. It’s all fucked up. But anyway, uh, subscribe now and then you click this bell. I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t do this for everything. You click this bell and then you click all. And so if Brian goes live or if there’s something new, you just get a little thing that slides down on the top of your, uh, your phone. And then if you want to get on Brian’s other, uh, his next, um, his next page is, uh, nope, not that, uh, this, this, yeah. So then go over to the, to Instagram. And, uh, there’s, uh, it’s B friendly, just the letter B friendly fitness. And then it’s an Instagram account. Can you do that with this too? Uh, turn on notifications or is that in here?
Brian Friend:
I think there is a way, but I don’t think I’ve done that for anyone ever on Instagram.
Sevan Matossian:
I don’t see did what? Turn on notifications. So I get all, like if I,
John Young:
I don’t see, yeah, I don’t know. I don’t think I’ve ever done that either.
Sevan Matossian:
I don’t, I don’t want, I
Brian Friend:
Swear there, there must be a way, because there are a couple people that literally the moment I post something, they, they react to it every time. And I, I don’t know how that could be possible otherwise.
Sevan Matossian:
Look at these ballers that follow your account. Jason Grub, Jorge Fe Fernandez and Kai plus 60 69. How convenient. Oh, this a, uh, show where you are going to hear the picks of John Young versus, uh, Brian Friend. This is a very contentious show. Um, if you’re bothered by, um, uh, nasty facial gestures and contortions and maybe some hand gestures, this is not the show for you. Shit could get, uh, weird. Did John take a, uh, sink shower? I think he just came from the gym <laugh>.
John Young:
I did, I did take a sink shower. That is very accurate.
Sevan Matossian:
<laugh>. Is that true?
John Young:
Yeah. Yeah. Uh, I just wedded it down.
Sevan Matossian:
Wow. People love you on this. Uh, you get a lot of attention. John Young. Looks like a really happy frog. Huh? That’s a rough one. Uh, another, um, uh, I don’t know what this means. Uh, Lindsay Baker hogs and dogs. Okay.
Brian Friend:
I think you’re the hog savan.
Sevan Matossian:
Uh, ca Ken Walter’s just dropping all sorts of wisdom. Uh, Savan hasn’t got off of, of 21,500 subscribers for months. Not sure how he hasn’t hit 50 K by now. It’s so it go completely absurd. Uh, but that’s not true. We, we, we, every day we put on about 10 subscribers. We’re a good, uh, good rule. Uh, this weekend is the North, uh, John Young isn’t gay Barry mcc Wow. Strong.
John Young:
Not, I’m very happily married.
Sevan Matossian:
<laugh>. I’m concerned that that has to be said like that. That was awkward. <laugh>, uh, this weekend is, uh, we’re, we’re, we’re, we’re, we’re gonna know, uh, after this weekend, how many people are going to the CrossFit games? How many women, how many men?
Brian Friend:
Oh, well, I, I specifically did it like this just to confuse you.
Sevan Matossian:
Thank you. Oh, I saw it in your article. You mean in your article?
Brian Friend:
No, no, no. Oh, we did, we’re not trying to confuse you, but the number in Africa is the same. Okay. It’s one in one.
Sevan Matossian:
Okay.
Brian Friend:
And the number in North America east is not the same. It’s 12 men, 11 women.
Sevan Matossian:
Okay. So I’m gonna do the math. 12 plus one. That would be 13, uh, men.
Brian Friend:
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.
Sevan Matossian:
And, uh, I’m gonna do the math over here. And, uh, 12 women. So after this weekend we will know, uh, 12 women and 13 men that are going
Brian Friend:
About a third of the field. 30 and 32% of the field. And there’s three weeks. So it, it makes sense.
Sevan Matossian:
And I, and I’m gonna over simply is, is Justin Maderas competing this week? No. Okay. What, um, what, who are the big point winners from the strength of field that made it so that the men got an extra
Brian Friend:
It’s not, remember, the strength of field is not dependent on who is in the field. It’s how many are in the field. And by the field, I mean the top 100
Sevan Matossian:
I so, but were there some real big point winners like <laugh>?
Brian Friend:
No, no. Well, there could be, but it doesn’t matter. Like for example, uh, Jeff Adler is in this field, and Jeff Adler’s worldwide ranking is in the top 10. And then there might be someone else in the field, like, I don’t know this for sure, but maybe Griffin, Raleigh, whose worldwide ranking is 95. They both would count as one vote towards North East.
Sevan Matossian:
Oh, okay. So it’s not, they don’t add up their
Brian Friend:
Thousand points and Jeff Adler has 30,000 points. They still get one vote.
Sevan Matossian:
Okay. Well, I was acting like I knew what was going on. I clearly don’t.
Brian Friend:
No, and we, and even in the version that Halpin and I came up with, we didn’t allocate points based on the, the caliber of the athlete in the field in both of those methods. And it’s something that you, we talked about in both of those methods. It’s just based on the dent, the the depth of field. But I think there is an opportunity going forward to not just account for the total number of athletes represented in each field, but how good they have been his, you know, historically or over time. That’s where I think looking backwards can be helpful. But that’s not the focus of this show.
Sevan Matossian:
No. But it could be. It’s always a potential to fall into that, uh, cavernous pit. Um, so North America and Africa, any reason why they chose these two to go first? Any any logic behind it or any, any
Brian Friend:
Explanation? I think that, I think that the, the priorities were one, CrossFit is running three events. So we’re gonna run those three events on three separate weekends. We’re not gonna do two on the same weekend. Two, when, where can we get venues and then, you know, plug and play from there. And three is, uh, distribute one and or two of the, uh, non CrossFit ran events to each weekend. And again, I think that a lot of times it comes down to what’s available when more so than, uh, we specifically want Africa and North America East to be the things kicking it off or to go on the same weekend.
Sevan Matossian:
I, I, uh, as, uh, our previous president would say, I thought that they did it because they were hooking up the biggest semi-final with one of the shithole semi-finals. Uh, so that more attention could be given to the, uh, more prestigious one. But it does concern me when we go to week three because I do wanna watch both of them and I kind of wish they would’ve moved, uh, separated, uh, Europe and
Brian Friend:
Umk
Sevan Matossian:
The island called Europe. No, isn’t, isn’t the la isn’t the last week Europe and um, the last weekend?
Brian Friend:
No, last week’s Europe and Asia. Okay. Oceania South America and North America West are week two. And I would
Sevan Matossian:
Say okay. And they can’t help that. Two good ones have to go together. There’s not enough shithole ones.
Brian Friend:
Yeah. And I mean, based on performance South, you know, if you’re looking at the four that cross is not running or the, the smaller continents that get less, um, you know, spots allocated, you would say Oceania is the strongest. South America’s the next then a Asia and Africa. But both Oceania and South America are going in the same week with one of the big three. So they’re just, I would say the most density of, of competition in the middle week. But again, sometimes, you know, you to get the venues needed to do this, we know that CrossFit’s not the most timely with some of these things making these decisions, whatever. I’m, I’m always hopeful that that will change, but I think that it’s less to do with who’s competing when and more about when can we get the spaces that we need to host or run these competitions.
Sevan Matossian:
Um, um, uh, Corbin Bowman, uh, John Young is my, uh, more so than Sevana O’Brien. That is fair. I I understand Barry mcc, McCaul Ander, who’s the lady in the pick with Brian, uh, in his story?
Brian Friend:
Oh, yeah. Uh, it was just a, it’s my best friend’s wife.
Sevan Matossian:
Oh. She was
Brian Friend:
Just wearing some, uh, she was just wearing some, uh, Hayes trainer, the strike movement shoe that I like. And, uh, they were like the new green version and I have the old green version on that day. So
Sevan Matossian:
Whatever. That’s, uh, let’s see what’s going on here. That’s your friend’s wife? No, that’s down Pepper.
Brian Friend:
If I had a wife that might be my wife’s friend. This is Be Friendly Fitness, so it’s not on this one account. Oh,
Sevan Matossian:
Well, shit, I’m a, I can’t, come on man.
Brian Friend:
I know. I’m asking you to do two things at once. It’s tough.
Sevan Matossian:
Uh, thank you Barry for the, uh, dollar 90, uh, nine. Um, so, uh, north America, Africa, uh, both be, both be streamed so that we can watch them.
Brian Friend:
Well, it is, I believe that the, the competition organizers in Africa are intending on having some sort of streaming for their event. What that means is not exactly clear in the past, anytime there’s been these level of cross competitions coming from Africa, they’ve tried to do that to some degree, whether it’s, um, uh, on Instagram Live or, or or on YouTube. So kind of wait and see for that one. And then as far as North America East goes at this moment, there will be a, a live broadcast for some, but not all of the events.
John Young:
What’s your, what’s your opinion on that, Brian? I know you’ve probably said it on a broadcast before, but on not streaming event.
Sevan Matossian:
Not one that actually people watch. So now that you’re on one that people actually watch, uh, say something about it please.
John Young:
Because I’ve heard both sides.
Sevan Matossian:
Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You there, there’s two sides. There’s someone who’s like, it’s fantastic. They’re not streaming events one and three.
John Young:
Well, yeah, I mean, I feel the way you feel, but they say that, so
Sevan Matossian:
There is no other side. There are not two sides, there are not two sides. There’s one side. Even the people who aren’t streaming at Wish that they were streaming it. Right. Come on.
Brian Friend:
I mean, I guess the other side would be the explanation of why, but it’s not a, it’s not a good, it’s not like a, an explanation that anyone’s going to consider acceptable.
Sevan Matossian:
Is this the streaming schedule right here? It’s, it’s, I am pretty impressed that when you type into Google that this pops up, I just put in, uh, 2023 semi-finals stream schedule. I didn’t even put CrossFit and here’s the, and this pops up. This is pretty impressive.
Brian Friend:
Yeah, we don’t know. That looks accurate. And I would consider, I would read that as local time. So that would be eastern Eastern standard time.
Sevan Matossian:
So might subtract three hours for me on everything. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Okay. And, um, something interesting did happen in the interview, uh, yesterday with Don fall on Coffee Pods and wads with Pedro. Uh, Pedro did ask him, why aren’t you streaming, um, the complete events? And in, in his defense at the end, he finally said, Hey, you should probably ask Justin and someone else that Justin Berg. But at one point he said, it’s because the events are taking place on different floors and it would be difficult to get the equipment on both floors or something like that cost prohibitive. Which would, you could then maybe suspect that this is only the first week that they won’t be streaming all of those workouts and that at future events they will be streaming all the workouts. If they’re all, if they all take place on the same floor,
Brian Friend:
We shall. I
John Young:
Just feel, I just feel like if you’re CrossFit you can work around stuff like that. Like you can find a way to do it.
Sevan Matossian:
Oh, for sure.
John Young:
Well, just like, you can find,
Sevan Matossian:
How about Waza just did it on Instagram that year, right? Like they had Tommy just hold Instagram camera. That was great. I mean, it was better than nothing. I mean,
John Young:
We, we freaking streamed Waap Polooza,
Sevan Matossian:
Right?
John Young:
With, with a budget of zero.
Sevan Matossian:
Right? Right.
John Young:
Um,
Sevan Matossian:
The explanation of why, um, we had to cut something, we picked the lowest streaming watch times in the longest workouts. Yeah. He, and he gave some sort of explanation like that too, based on numbers. I I wasn’t buying any of it. I think it was, uh, to be honest, I think that that question was below his pay grade. That that’s not a dig at Pedro’s. Still a great question. Um, yeah, j uh, John’s dog static full floor camera, uh, fire Justin. I mean, at least do one, at least do one of those. Okay. Uh, th this is exciting, right? This North Amer. And so here’s another, I guess we could piggyback off of this. Here’s another reason. And um, I can’t remember if it was I who I heard this from. It may have been talking elite fitness, but this, this is, I think, uh, it was, I think Tommy said it. This is a must see this north. If you are a CrossFit fan, this North America region is a must see. It is a must, must, must, must, must, must, must see. And the reason why is cuz this is gonna be, this could be better than the games even. I mean, this women’s seat is stacked. Come on. Seven of the 10 just pipe hitters.
Brian Friend:
10 what?
Sevan Matossian:
Uh, seven of the top 10 you five. Uh, five of the, uh, thank, well
Brian Friend:
Just, let’s just look backwards. Okay. Last year there were four North American semi-finals, the Atlas games, the top two finishers were Emma Lawson and Paige Powers. They’re both in this field at the Granite Games. The top two finishers were finishers were Ma O’Brien and Amanda Barnard. They’re both in this field. At the Mac. The top finisher was Daniel Brandon, she’s in this field. And at Syndicate Crown, the top finisher was Haley Adam. She’s not competing this year. The next two finishers were Alexis RTI and, uh, Paige Samza both in this field. So of the top eight, top two in each division that are returning of women in North America, seven of the eight are in this field. Sydnee Han is out west. That is not including
John Young:
Emma Carey,
Brian Friend:
Emma Carey or Brook Wells.
John Young:
We’re both better than probably 70% of the names that you just named.
Brian Friend:
Right? So you’re so like, yes, the women’s field in North America, east is insanely strong at the top that now that, but that means two things. That means, first of all, and you’ll see this when we go to our picks, that it’s not such a mystery necessarily who’s gonna take most of the game spots, but it is an opportunity for us to see a big handful of the top 10 athletes, female athletes in the world compete head-to-head twice this year.
Sevan Matossian:
Right. Well, and and it’s, it’s a gr there isn’t a better preview for the games. There isn’t a place where more tension will be added, where you can get more, uh, uh, respect for what you’re about to see it go down in Madison.
John Young:
No, it really feels like a, like a conference finals in a, in a sport like a Western conference, finals and Eastern Conference finals as far as for the games at the North America, east and North America, west men and women.
Sevan Matossian:
And let’s say something crazy does happen that Malo br Brian, Danielle, Brandon or Emma Lawson doesn’t go
Brian Friend:
<laugh>.
John Young:
I mean, they could get hurt
Sevan Matossian:
Or, or or there, um, there’s, there’s some of these workouts, this, this pirouette workout. There’s such precision required that something could happen and uh,
John Young:
Everybody you just named is like the one of the best gymnast
Sevan Matossian:
<laugh>. I know. <laugh>, I hear you. What if Paige Powers doesn’t go
Brian Friend:
Well? So the other, you know, the, if you, if you wanna
Sevan Matossian:
Talk about, by the way, John, your picks are fucked up. I’m looking at ’em right now. They’re fucked up.
John Young:
Well, they’re like the same as Brian’s picks. So <laugh>, I’m,
Sevan Matossian:
I am pissed.
John Young:
Ryan sent me his list and I’m like, you just copied mine. It was the exact Wow.
Brian Friend:
I’ll
Sevan Matossian:
Get it John. Get ’em. He did, did, did Brian copy your list?
John Young:
I made my list first, just so the crowd knows
Brian Friend:
That’s not true.
Sevan Matossian:
And you think he watched your show on the Spin podcast and then just copied your shit
John Young:
Copy and paste?
Brian Friend:
It’s not copy and paste. But I will tell you this, I actually didn’t, didn’t watch that show and I didn’t open John’s picks until after he texted me and said that it was copy and paste. And when I did, I, I looked through it and I realized that in North America, east the top 15 though not in the same order. We have exactly the same 15 women selected and out of the men we have 14 of the 15 men selected. And that’s what I was saying. I don’t think it’s so much of a mystery in the east and I don’t think this is gonna be true in the West by the way next week. But I don’t think it’s a
John Young:
Mystery. The West is gonna be fun. The west. I bet we are have different opinions in the West.
Brian Friend:
Yeah, well, I mean Al almost definitely, but in the East it’s not so much the mystery who is at the top, it’s just how they’re gonna sort themselves out.
Sevan Matossian:
Yeah. Uh, Jake Chapman, I’m getting Rainman vibes from Brian when he is talking to Sev. Yeah, I always get that. I’m Tom Cruise and he’s Dustin Hoffman, I guess <laugh>. Um, let me, let me ask you guys this. Is there anything, two questions first, i I, if Tia wouldn’t have gotten uh, uh, taken, taken the baby batter, do you think she would be, uh, top of the field? Would she be your number one pick?
John Young:
Yeah, so I think she would dominate everybody and it wouldn’t be close
Sevan Matossian:
Ryan.
Brian Friend:
You mean assuming she was never had never been pregnant? Yeah,
Sevan Matossian:
Yeah,
Brian Friend:
Yeah. You, I mean you still would have to pick
Sevan Matossian:
Her. Yeah. Okay. Is there anything that, that any of these girls can do between now and the 2024 season that would make you think Tia can’t win, Tia can’t come back and win? Is there any performance mal could put on this weekend or in at the games that makes you go, oh shit, it’s the, I think,
Brian Friend:
I mean you have to see some like serious domination. You would’ve to see an athlete like win five of these seven events have top three finishes on the other two win. I mean, and then probably have like 10 out of 15 top five finishes at the games, including five event wins. Like, and then you’d have to see that athlete show up at Rogue Win four of seven event, you know, four outta 10 events, have all top five finishes and just be like, oblating the field because that’s what we’re used to seeing from Tia. And unless someone else is able to show up and do that consistently stage after stage after stage in and out of season, it’s really hard to say that anyone would be able to go toe to toe with her when we’ve seen her do it. Not just year, you know, competition after competition, but year after year. And then you see, you see her say, oh, now that I’ve had this baby, I’m more fired up than ever. I’m more focused than ever. I’m more driven than ever. And it’s just like, what, what, like how could you be more focused than you have been for the past 40 years?
Sevan Matossian:
I know
John Young:
Girl. Well she, she’d have that on Matt, you know, <laugh> that puts a, a feather in her cap to be better than Fraser.
Brian Friend:
Isn’t
Sevan Matossian:
She already? She already has six though, right?
John Young:
Yeah, but this would kind of cement it. I mean it’s pretty hard to argue if she comes back after a baby and still
Sevan Matossian:
Wins. Oh, see, I agree. I But you
Brian Friend:
Do look and you see like there, like I, it’s, I don’t, I don’t, I think I believe her. I mean, look and see Annie has a baby. She comes back, she competes very well. Carra has a baby, she come back, she competes very well. We have other women like Camilla, Solomons and Hellman this year had a baby. She’s coming back to compete. We’ll see how she does. But I do think that this is, you know, you’ve talked about it before seven, how whatever the circumstances, if you step aside from this sport for a year to two, getting back into the ring and competing is, is it, is it realistic? Is it possible? But the one exception seems to be if you’re a woman and you have a kid, yes it is possible.
Sevan Matossian:
Hey, if she, if she does come back and she does win and, and that gave her seven, I I I would, I would not give someone who win wins eight make them better than her if they didn’t do the same thing. I, I, I don’t know. I don’t know how you, you have a baby and come back and do that, pull your shit. I mean, just the psychological implications that she’s done so much and that she could just walk away now and chill and come back as nuts.
Brian Friend:
Yeah, I mean I don’t, I like, yeah, <laugh>
Sevan Matossian:
Most is nuts. Annie, anyone, I’d love to see Annie win this year. Just so can see a woman do that who’s had a baby win. I would love to
Brian Friend:
See that. That’s not, I mean, look, it’s not impossible for Annie to win this year. Like, you know what, ba given what she’s done over the last two years that she’s been competing, like her resume stacks up against most of the women in the field. You know, she’s been right there with Laura. She’s been right there with, you know, so, but um, you know, for someone like Tia, it’s like, well one of why are you competing? Are you competing for the money? Not anymore. She’s got plenty of money. Are you competing for the legacy? Like your legacy is already about as good as you could ever ask for it to be seven consecutive years for, you know, second, second eight years and then sixth first. Like how, you know, so she’s competing for something else. Like, and it it’s gotta be the love of the sport and that is a little bit scary.
John Young:
Well if anything she can take it like, it’s almost a new challenge. You know, I just had a baby, like I’ve dominated everybody forever. Um, and now I just had a baby watch me come back and do it again cuz it’s not like it’s going to be easy, you know, she was so good. She could just show up and we know she’s going to win.
Sevan Matossian:
Um, she probably appreciates the doubt is what you’re saying. Like, she’s so many, it probably sucks when everyone expects you’re gonna win and now she has a baby and now we at least get to doubt her a little bit and that lights a fire under her as you’re saying.
John Young:
Yeah, and I mean, I mean, and I think if Mal dominated the games and say won by 200 points, that would only fire her up even more. Because I guarantee people will say like, Mel’s going to take if Mal wins by 200 points. I don’t think, I think it’d be half and half people that think Tia would win her and people would think Mao would win.
Sevan Matossian:
Brian, are the women, are the women better than the men? I I I know that you think, you’ve thought that the men’s field, um, is deeper than the women’s field, but are the women better than the men? Is it just a better competition? They’re just the top, the top 15 women are just better than the top 15 men right now.
Brian Friend:
I I don’t even know how to process that question.
Sevan Matossian:
Okay, well let’s, let’s even throw Tia and Hailey back in the mix in, in some of the, in, in, in, in Car sa I mean the women’s field is, I I have so much more interest in watching the women compete this year than the men. I mean, this list is crazy. I’m looking at that. I’m about to pull up.
Brian Friend:
Yeah. There, you know, I, you know, it’s, it’s, I you’re confusing me because it’s like you mentioned Tia and when you mentioned Tia, it’s like when you have someone like that in the field or when you don’t, then the whole landscape of the competition changes. So with the TIA or a Fraser or a Froning in the field, it’s like, it feels like this inevitable force. Right. You know, and even as good as Justin has been the last two years, he still doesn’t feel inevitable. Like it still feels like there’s a chance. I mean, it, it, it’s obviously a bummer. Ricky’s not competing, but it feels like there’s a chance that Roman could beat him. Right. Right. And just that chance brings some kind of other like interest level of interest to the competition this year with Tia out of the way, even though most people think it comes down to two women and a lot of people think it’s a foregone conclusion of one that’s gonna win.
There still is an element of unknown and there’s a deep roster of really talented women. And depending on how far down you go, there’s also some really, really talented female competitors that have been great in the past that we’re j that are big question marks. Ka Davis Outter, Sarahs Outter, Jamie Simmons, Bethany Chadburn, like that. We just, we don’t know. And then there’s these up and coming. Emma Carey coming. Olivia k said are throwing her name in the ring. We don’t, you know, we don’t know how good Emma Lawson’s gonna be. And it’s almost every woman that could finish in the top 10 that has a question mark, how much improvement has Alexis wrapped? Ma Yeah. Is Amanda Barnard gonna bounce back? It’s like you gimme the woman that could be top 10. And I’ll tell you the, there’s an unknown no matter how much you think you know or how much you try to follow this sport. I look top to bottom and I say I’m excited to see this woman compete because
Sevan Matossian:
Like we know Saxon and Spencer heavy heavyweight contenders in the men’s division, but, but not, we don’t know, uh, we don’t know. Funny
Brian Friend:
You say that, considering they’re some of the lightest Athens.
Sevan Matossian:
The, the the Oh you mean, uh, in terms of their weight? Well, we just, we’ve seen them. We have, we have shitloads of data points like Emma Lawson, like we don’t know, like you said Emma Carey, we don’t know page powers. We don’t know. I mean there’s only, we only have, we have very few data points.
Brian Friend:
Well, and the data points,
Sevan Matossian:
Well maybe that’s why I’m so excited cuz they’re all, they, we know we’re, they’re all gonna basically win one event, at least at the games. They’re gonna do something
Brian Friend:
Unless someone comes along and just elevates to that level that we were talking about and, and just has this dominating performance, which is not, it’s not outta the realm of possibility. I mean if the, you know, depending on what the programming is at the games, you know, Laura Hoorvath could win four events, five events there. Like that’s not unrealistic if you’re winning five out of, you know, if you’re winning a third of the events, that’s like, usually it takes about a thousand points to win. That’s 500 points and there’s still 10 remaining events. You only have to average 50 on the others to have enough points to win. It’s like,
John Young:
Yeah, but you gotta bank for zero on one.
Brian Friend:
I don’t know. I don’t know what Steve,
Sevan Matossian:
Uh, Brian Thompson do. We know if the events will not be streamed will be shown in their entirety later at least. Uh, he’s referring to events one and three, I believe that’s the, the machine and pool event, which is one and then Linda event three.
Brian Friend:
I think that that question is cost $2 to answer.
Sevan Matossian:
Okay. Hey, and I think the answer is we have no idea. I if you, if you read what it says on the, I’ll paraphrase what it says on the game site, that there will be a post-production, um, of it, uh, which means it sounds like you won’t be able to watch it in its, uh, entirety. Um, there’s a couple things I’d like to bring up. Do we know, uh, this is from discussion, uh, that these are questions that I’ve stolen from Brian. Um, do we know the prize purse?
Brian Friend:
We do not.
Sevan Matossian:
And is, is that odd? Do we care, is that unfair or is that cool? Or these people have to go anyway? What is, what’s the relevancy of that and why is that? Are they still getting more money? Are they collecting more money?
John Young:
It’s, it’s relevant at the top. So like if you, uh, if it’s just like $3,000 for first place, the top five guys are probably not going to try super hard cuz they know they’re in, you know. Um, but it gives them worth something worth fighting for. If it’s like 20 grand, then the winner or second place or third place like.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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